VietNamNet Bridge – There have been many reports in the local medion odd activities cruel behaviourof to the youth. What is happening with the lifestyle and personality  young people?

Behaviours like throwing acid, beating or threatening to kill teachers violence  in schools, children killing their fathers or grandparents, schoolboys killing their girlfriends, murder cases caused by very minor disagreements, girls offering themselves on the web, group sex, etc. are taking place among some circles of young people. VietNamNet has launched a forum with the participation of experts and young people to discuss this dark side of youth’s society.

Dr. Nguyen Kim Quy from the Vietnam Association of Educational Psychology: Vietnamese youth lack goals and ideals

There are no statistics or scientific research work in Vietnam on the downgrading of morals or lifestyle of a part of Vietnamese young people today. However, the number of shocking cases related to the youth is increasing, to more and more serious levels, for instance in the cases of children killing their fathers in Hai Duong province and HCM City, students killing their girlfriends and boyfriends using cruel methods, etc.

Young people have never been as aggressive as today. Some boys kill others just because they didn’t like the victims’ glints, voice or smile or just because of a minor disagreement.

These people think that force is the “justice”, not the law or social moral.

There were up to 1600 violence cases related to students in the 2009-2010 academic year, causing at least seven deaths.

The first reason for the downgraded morals and lifestyle is the irresponsibility of parents, who are only interested in teaching knowledge to their children, not ethics.

“Study manners first and then learn how to read and write”. But we have given priority to teaching knowledge and disregarded the teaching of good behavior.

Many parents have imposed their will and desires on their children. This has created pressure on children, making them angry and once this anger explodes, it is very fierce, which shows through their recklessness toward their parents and brutal actions against them.

Under the work pressure, parents spend little time toeducate their children. They often think that if they send their children to school then teachers are responsible to teach the kids. Not Until their children become corrupt, do they start paying attention to teaching their kids but by then it is too late.

Parents must be good examples for their children but let’s see how the adults live. If parents’lifestyle isn’t good, they can’t teach their children to become good people.

Some rich families spoil their children. The children will then only do what they like, ignoring moral principles and laws.

As regards school, the media has been talking about teachers extensively. There are not manymodel teachers today and the reason is the fault of the teacher training schools, which don’t pay sufficient attention to training teachers’ personalities.

Local newspapers have recently reported many cases in which teachers abused and beat their students, teachers who took bribes, who forced their children to attend extra classes, etc. The image of teachers in the eyes of students is bad.

Thirdly, our management of movies, publications, Internet is not good. Pornography and violence flood the  Internet. Violent games are not effectively controlled.

I also see many young people who live without goals, aspirations and ideals. With the currently predominant teaching method – with a teacher reading out loud and students taking notes – it is no wonder that they aren’t interested in their studies either. Also, no wonder they don’t have any ideals of love and compassion, considering the pressure of success from their families and their disappointment in the adults’ sham.

The youth also lacks healthy playgrounds while the virtual world has many interesting things. But they learn bad things from that world.

Developed countries have also experienced such changes.

But I think that our prevention actions are ineffective. We don’t have serious research on this topic.

As a researcher and a mother, I wish that Vietnamese parents  had a chance to attend classes teaching how to be good wives, good husbands or good grandparents. Through such classes, they learn how to teach their children and to be good examples for them.

Government agencies need to take drastic measures to put under control the rubbish culture that is infiltrating Vietnam through publications, movies and the Internet.

Hoang Phuong, a student from the Institute for Journalism: Educational methods are problematic

The decadence of morals and lifestyle happens to a small part of young people whose awareness is poor.

However, the adults only criticize the youth but they don’t try to learn what the youth think and why they behave like this?

Moreover, besides the reasons related to family, schools, the infiltration of pornography and violence, there is another reason: our educational methods are problematic.

We should call it “stealing the childhood” of kids because children go to school to learn and learn, not play or enjoy themselves. They don’t have freedom to develop, have no chance to be close to the nature, have no time to relax.

Our education tends to focus on teaching children IT skills or foreign languages and disregard history, ethics, etc, the subjects that teach students values of tradition and morality.

Nguyen Duc, student of Hanoi University for Social Sciences and Humanity: don’t look one-sidedly

To teach their children effectively, parents should change themselves first.

It seems that Vietnamese parents don’t pay attention to the thinking of their children. Instead, the “self” is great and very important to the youth today.

We expect people to not look at art one-sidedly.

Thao Huong from the Hanoi Teacher Training University: Living in a hurry is showing the “self”

I’m a person who belongs to the 9X generation (born in the 1990s), the generation which is considered to be pragmatic. But I don’t think that living in a hurry is pragmatic but it is the way to show up personality and the self.

Perhaps some young people show some “deviations” in their behavior but it’s because they don’t have any ideals or goals in their lives. They are told to follow predefined directions and become confused.

Thanh Tam from the University of Labor and Society: when teachers are not examples

A sad fact about Vietnam is that teachers at kindergartens and primary schools are disregarded while they are the ones who lay the first bricks for the development of children’s personality.

Children respect their teachers most - only after their parents. If these “mirrors” are dim, what will children look at?

POD – leader of the Fly Walker dancing troupe: Adults impose their will on children

The youth have virtual trends but it is not true to say that they live without living goals and ideals.

Visiting night clubs or discotheques is a normal hobby but some young people take drugs at these places. As a result, this hobby becomes a bad one in the eyes of many people.

I’ve heard many people say that hip-hop is uneducated and weird, etc. I don’t understand why they have such thoughts.

It is just a hobby. Why youngsters in other countries can have passion for hip-hop, but not Vietnamese youth? I think that adults still impose their will and old thoughts on the youth.

Son Khe – Thuy Thom – Hong Khanh